WWE is being asked to stop enforcing non-disclosure agreements with its current and former employees and contractors in the wake of sex trafficking allegations against former WWE co-founder Vince McMahon.
The request comes from Janel Grant, who is suing McMahon, WWE and former executive John Laurinaitis over various sexual misconduct allegations.
“If WWE and its parent company Endeavor are serious about parting ways with Vince McMahon and the toxic workplace culture he created, their executives should have no problem releasing former WWE employees from their NDAs,” said Ann Callis, Grants lawyer, in a statement released on Monday by the Associated Press. “This is the first step in cleaning up a company that covered up sexual assault and human trafficking for decades.”
The Associated Press has reached out to the defendants' teams for comment. A spokesman for McMahon, Curtis Vogel, declined to comment. Attorneys for WWE and Laurinaitis did not immediately respond to the release, nor did WWE and its parent companies Endeavor Group Holdings and its subsidiary TKO Group Holdings.
Grant sued McMahon and Laurinaitis in January with graphic allegations of sexual assault, harassment, human trafficking and other abuses. McMahon, who resigned as CEO A member of TKO's board of directors after the lawsuit was filed has denied Grant's allegations. So was McMahon Reportedly the subject of a federal investigation because of sex trafficking.
Grant worked for WWE between 2019 and 2022. She signed a $3 million non-disclosure agreement with WWE. Grant's lawsuit seeks to invalidate that agreement and claims McMahon breached the deal by paying only $1 million.
According to a 2022 report, four other women formerly associated with WWE signed non-disclosure agreements The Wall Street Journal.
A federal law passed in 2022 and similar laws in more than a dozen states restrict the use of NDAs to prevent victims of sexual harassment from going public with their allegations.
